But they do underline an eternal truth. From Franklin Roosevelt and his attempt to pack the Supreme Court, Nixon and Watergate, Reagan and Iran Contra, to Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, and most recently George W. Bush and Hurricane Katrina, chaos in Iraq and the 2007-08 financial crisis - second terms are when trouble hits.
Of the three, the Benghazi affair seems the least menacing.
Whether the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three members of his staff in the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack could have been prevented is no longer the issue. What bothers the Republicans is "spin": how the Administration portrayed the attack. And their quarry is at least as much the Secretary of State at the time, Hillary Clinton, whom Republicans see as their most formidable potential opponent in 2016, as Obama himself.
The AP and Internal Revenue Service controversies may be more damaging.
In the former, the Justice Department is pursuing not so much the wire service as the official who leaked details of the operation in 2012 to thwart an "underwear bombing" of a commercial plane planned by the Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda.
Democratic Administrations might be assumed to be more relaxed about leaks than Republican ones. Not so Obama's, which has prosecuted six officials for leaking classified information to reporters.
The scope of the investigation, according to legal experts, is exceptional. In a letter to Attorney-General Eric Holder, Gary Pruitt, the AP president, denounced a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into news-gathering activities that had "no possible justification", and demanded the return of the records.
The IRS affair may have the greatest ramifications, and certainly strikes the darkest historical chords. With its examination of the tax-exempt status of Tea Party-aligned and other right-wing political groups, the IRS has brought back memories of the Nixon White House and its use of the tax authorities to hound political opponents - except that this time the roles are reversed, with conservatives the target. In Tuesday's press conference, Obama described the behaviour of the IRS (which itself admits it was "inappropriate") as "outrageous".
No one is claiming the President ordered the investigation - indeed, since Watergate, presidents have been legally barred from contact with the IRS. But the very question acted as illustration of how scandals, at the very least, are distractions for even the most disciplined White House.
Obama is already learning that lesson. Last week's Benghazi hearings dominated the Washington headlines. Hearings on the IRS affair are already scheduled for Saturday NZT in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, and Holder may well soon find himself in the Capitol Hill hot seat to explain the AP affair.
- Independent
Time for damage control
AP scandal
The US Administration yesterday pushed back after being accused of undermining press freedom by seizing reporters' phone records, claiming officials took the drastic steps to protect American lives. Attorney General Eric Holder said it involved a "very, very serious leak [that] puts the American people at risk". A Justice Department statement said that the investigation "has been conducted by the FBI under the direction of the US Attorney and the supervision of the deputy attorney general". President Barack Obama's spokesman Jay Carney said the White House was not involved. Several Republican and Democratic officials questioned the department's actions and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said Holder should resign.
IRS scandal
Obama condemned "intolerable" behaviour by tax agency staff and ordered Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to hold "those responsible for these failures accountable". Obama said: "The [Treasury Department] report's findings are intolerable and inexcusable. The IRS must apply the law in a fair and impartial way, and its employees must act with utmost integrity. This report shows that some of its employees failed that test."
- AFP, AP
